Filipendulous
by Black And White Kirara
Summary: She needed him. She needed InuYasha here. She still wasn't entirely sure why that was, what she needed him for, but whatever was happening, whatever it was she was supposed to do, she NEEDED him to do it. Finally edited, first chapter!


**Disclaimer:** I take no ownership over the InuYasha series or its characters.

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><p><span>Prologue<span>

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_7 year old girl named Kagome Higurashi sat between her mother's raised knees._

_She reached a hand up, pointing towards the twinkling sea of stars that dotted the night sky above the two of them. The little girl felt so excited by the sight above her. Never had the sky in Tokyo been so clear; she could not wait to glimpse her first shooting star. _

_A warm and blissful sort of feeling that a person could only really experience during their years of innocent youth began to bubble inside Kagome's chest at the thought. A shooting star. Her very first... _

_Would it be as beautiful as her mama had told? Would it light up the sky with a light so bright that all the other stars simply faded in its wake as she had imagined? _

_Kagome, lost in her wondrous, childish thoughts, started a bit when her mother wrapped her arms around her front and pulled her daughter back into her chest in a tender embrace. She felt as her mother leant her mouth towards her ear and whispered; "Look over there, sweetheart..."_

_At her mother's words, pure, uncontainable excitement spread through Kagome's being like wildfire. She snapped her head back up to the night expanse and simply stared, waiting._

_Sure enough, a trail of bright, otherworldly –no- _heavenly_ light came speeding across the sky above them. Little Kagome's eyes got very wide, lighting up in awe, shimmering with moisture at the beautiful phenomena that was unfolding... _

"_Make a wish, Kagome," her mother continued softly. _

_And so she did._

_An odd feeling in her tummy knocked Kagome out of the spell the falling star seemed to have placed her under. What her mama had just said... _

"_Make a wish..." Had she heard that somewhere before?_

_The odd feeling in the bottom of her tummy suddenly got stronger and stronger still as the moments went by. It was starting to hurt. It was making her frightened. She clutched her middle and let out a cry._

"_Ma-Mama..." Kagome began to sob. _

_Her mother placed a soothing hand on the girl's head and began to run her long fingers through the raven-black hair there in a gentle, continuous fashion. The woman's other hand reached out and clasped one of Kagome's, threading her long fingers through the little girl's much smaller ones, squeezing them lightly. _

"_Shhhh," her mother cooed as tears began to fall down Kagome's cheeks. The hurt was getting worse, it wasn't going away!_

"_I'm s-scared..." the girl choked out._

_Her mother's voice was both collected and soothing._

"_I know. Try to keep focused, sweetheart. I'm here with you. It'll be over soon."_

_Fo-focused? What did that mean? Focused on what?_

_It was then that Kagome got what she could only describe as a rather unexpected shock. She turned away from her mother's embrace and stood to full height. Her mother, looking just as collected as she had sounded but following her daughter's every move, stood up as well. _

_What the- ?_

_It was then that Kagome realised she was only a mere half a head shorter than her mother. How could that be? She was only a little girl, and short for her age too. She should only be reaching her mother's hip, not practically eye level! _

_Near petrified with fear and confusion, Kagome pleaded with her mother once more. _

"_Mama please... what's happening to me?" Her voice sounded a lot deeper than it had a moment ago too. Tears were trailing down her cheeks in little streams. "Mama...?"_

_It was then that her mother's calm composure faltered entirely. She reached forward and embraced her now 19 year old daughter tightly, rubbing the small of Kagome's back in a gentle, circular manner, all the while patting the top of her head as the girl sobbed into her chest, soaking the shirt there. _

"_I'm here, Kagome. I'm so proud of you. You're my little girl and I'm always with you, no matter how far you are from me. Across any distance..."_

_Mrs. Higurashi then brought the hand that rested on Kagome's back to her chin, tilting it back up towards the night sky so that the stars were visible. She continued._

"_Across any distance, and across any _time, _when you need me, I'll be there. All you have to do is make a wish." _

_And then Kagome realised where she really was. This whole thing, watching her first shooting star as a little girl with her mother, making a wish on it... she had only been reliving a memory. None of it was actually happening. _

This_ was a dream._

_The pain reared its ugly head in the pit of her stomach again; it was almost a tightening sensation. Had her mother (or, at least, the _image _that was her mother) not been helping to hold her up, Kagome would have been knocked to her knees. She looked down at her midsection again. _

_Sure enough..._

_Slowly, Kagome raised her gaze to meet with that of her mother's image before her. Dream, vision or reality, Kagome Higurashi was no longer certain at that precise second... but found she honestly could not care less. _

_Her mother was _here. _That made Kagome smile, despite the pain, and her smile was as bright as when she had sat with her mother all those years ago, making her first wish on a star. Mrs. Higurashi smiled back in the same adoring, loving manner. The older woman then let forward and whispered softly once more. _

"_Don't forget to push, sweetheart."_

_And with that, her mother disappeared as Kagome's vision faded into white. _

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><p>"Lady Kaede!"<p>

Hurried, frantic voices was what Kagome awoke to. Most of them were female. She could make out Sango's voice as the loudest, and she could sense that perhaps Kaede was there somewhere too. Maybe even Rin.

"It is almost time. Kagome! Ye must stay awake now child!"

She felt exhausted, exhausted beyond any kind of exhaustion she had felt before. Running a 100 mile marathon couldn't hurt nearly half as much as this. Everything was hurting. Her legs felt like lead. She could barely open her eyes.

"Rin, bring the blankets!" There was a scurrying of feet.

Kagome could no longer see or feel or even sense her mother's presence. It really must have been all a dream. Her mother had told her that she would be there with her, that she always was, that she was proud of her...

"Sango, has there been any news of InuYasha?"

"No, him and Miroku should have been back hours ago. I have no idea where they are..."

Sango's voice was worried, Kagome could tell. But it was not the worry in her voice that made Kagome so frightened, nor was it the fact that she could not remember the last thing that he mother had told her.

_InuYasha._ Yes, that name was familiar. That name meant a lot to her.

_He, _she suddenly realised, meant more to her anything. He _was _her everything.

"He's not going to get here in time, Kaede. He's not going to be here...Kaede her contractions are getting so close now and he's not _here..._"

"Hush, Sango. Kagome is a strong lass; she will do this with or without him here."

_No! _Kagome reeled. She needed him. She needed InuYasha here. She still wasn't entirely sure why that was, what she needed him for, but whatever was happening, whatever it was she was supposed to do, she _NEEDED _him to do it!

And then that pain from before was back, stretching through the pit of her abdomen, between her legs, around her lower back. This was agony, so much worse than it had been with her mother.

"InuYasha!" She screeched out through the pain. Someone wiped a wet cloth over her forehead and clasped her hand.

"He'll be here Kagome, I promise he'll be here. You've got to stay strong until then though, you've got to focus on this baby." That was Sango.

Wait? Staying focused? Hadn't that been what her mother had said in that dream-thing? Wasn't there something she was meant to be doing?

"Kagome, child, push!"

And then it all became very clear to her. Where she was, what was happening to her, the reason she was in so much pain, what her mother had told her to do in the 'dream'... the reason she needed InuYasha with her now more than ever.

"Push, child!"

The pain was near unbearable. She yelled out again and squeezed Sango's hand tight. She couldn't do this.

But she had to. The baby... with or without InuYasha, she had to think of the baby. Their baby.

She had to try for her little one. He or she might never get a chance if she didn't...

One, two, three –

"KAGOME!" A loud, frantic voice sounded.

She screamed.

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><p><strong>AN:** I can't believe how much this is bugging me but: **prologue, prelude, or preface?** I finally decided on "prologue," but whether it's in the right context or not, I'm not 100 per cent. Hopefully, you'll see why in the next chapter.

'_**Filipendulous' – **_suspended by, or hanging from a thread. It'll be a metaphorical sense of the word in this story. It sounds nice and bizarre too.

**Edited: 15/07/11.** Thanks for the encouraging reviews!


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